Nut-mill



R. A. GREENE.

NUT MILL.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 4. 1920.

1,394,0 2, Patented Oct. 18, 1921.

3 SHEETS-SHEET I.

:8 avwamtoz @331 M flbliome B. A. GREENE.

NUT MILL. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 4, I920.

Patented Oct. 18, 1921.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

WQM 3:513 a t tune R. A. GREENE.

NUT MILL.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 4. 1920.

1,394,082. Patented Oct. 18, 1921.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

mvgmtoz Maw, 351 Ave aflozmu vy/kki I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

RICHARD GREENE, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO JABEZ BURNS & SONS,

. A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

NUT-MILL.

HEISSUED Patented Oct. 18, 1921.

Application filed September 4, 1920. Serial No. 408,124.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, RICHARD A. GREENE, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Nut-Mills, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to grinding 'mills, more particularly to force feed and force discharge mills especially intended for grinding nuts or such similar edible oily or fatty bodies.

The consumption of peanut butter is constantly increasing and a demand has arisen for a nut mill which will have a large capacity of uniform output for a prolonged period, without shut downs for repa rs, cleaning, sharpening of grinders, etc.

In previous patents issued to me, nut mills are disclosed which are superior in output and longevity to previous mills, but the demands of the trade for constantly greater output and reduced number of shutdowns for sharpening, cleaning and repairs, have necessitated an intensive and extended study of the entire problem, resulting in the present invention by which extremely satisfactory results are obtained.

I have found that the maximum output for a given size of mill, with minimum sharpening of grinders, and avoidance of excessive stresses in the machine (particularly the thrust bearing which has heretofore been a source of trouble) is obtained by the combination of a forced feed screw cooperating with a longitudinally grooved casing feeding the nuts positively under heavy, pressure to fiat grinding disks and maintaining the heavy pressure on the nuts not only to, but entirely through the grinders and the casing to the discharge spout. By this combination, not only is the output as compared with previous mills either of the cone or disk type substantially increased, but I have discovered that flat disks do not require such frequent sharpening, and the strain on the thrust bearing is not as great for a given output with fiat disks as with cone grinders.

For example, I have found that new grinders when pushed to capacity, lose within a comparatively short time, a percentage of efiiciency. With cone grinders. the loss of eiiiciency is not only greater but more rapid and progressive than with disk grinders, while increase of power simply dulls such grinders more rapidly an; iricreases the thrust bearing load,the limits being either breaking of the bearin sto a e of feed by the feed screw and casiiig gfigs clogging up, or stalling of the motor. With disk grinders on the contrary, I have found that the pressures on the thrust bearing are decidedly less; the feed does not clog up; nor does the efficiency of disks substantiallv drop for a long time after the initial drop always met with new disks. The motor may of course be stalled under some conditions, but my experience seems to indicate that an essential condition for a high efficiency disk IIllll is that the pressure must be maintained throughout the disks until the actual grinding and discharge under pressure from the disks is effected.

An advantage obtained by a discharge under pressure is that by employing a strong pressure resisting casing with a discharge spout, the nut butter comes out in a solid pasty mass free from air bubbles and can be readily filled directly into small containers commonly used in the retail trade, while heretofore, it has been necessary to provide a small machine, such as a meat chopper, to compress the ground nuts for filling into jaws.

This invention further comprises the specifit structure whereby the mill can be quickly disassembled for cleaning, and also renewal of the feed screw casing as a unit had when worn, without excessive expense.

In the accompanying drawings,

Figure 1 is an elevation partly in section of a grinder embodying the invention;

Fig. 2 is an end view;

Fig. 3 is a detail;

Fig. 4 is a face view of one of the annular grinders;

Fig, 5 is a section;

Fig. 6 is a section on the line 6-6 of F i 4;

Fig. 7 is a section on the line 7-7 of F ig. 4, and

Fig. 8 is a section on the line 88 of F ig. 4.

eferring to the drawings, 1 is a main supporting frame formed of two spaced pedestals connected at the lower ends by a web. The upper ends of these pedestals have journals 3 carrying the power shaft 2. 4 is a driving pulley loosely mounted on I sponding teeth 9 on the solid end 10 of The end .of the shaft 2 is provided with clutch teeth 8 which interlock with coires ow pitch feed screw 11 to drive thelatter. The ends of the shaft 2 and the feed screw are recessed to receive the coil spring 12, tend- I ing to hold the "grinders apart. The end of the frame -1 is'provided with a boss or flange 13, to which is separably bolted by bolts 14 through flange 16 the feed screw I 'casing 15. This feed screw casing is a casting having a boss 17 around openlng 19 to receive the supply chute 18, dlschargmg flover the inner end of feed screw 11.

The casing 15 is also provided with straight longitudinal feed grooves 19. W1th stralght grooves, it has been found by actual experience. that the feed screw 1s much more positive than if the grooves are spiral, and with less tendency to clogglng. As shown herein, there are four IlbS and four grooves, one of the ribs being shown in dotted l1nes behind the feed screw in Fig. 1. The chute 18 is separably attached to the boss 17 by means of bolts 20. Y

The end of the feed screw casing 15 is provided with a flange 21 carrying the stationar annular disk grinder 22 by bolts 23. \T e feed screw casing, being most subject to wear, is made renewable as a unit. The desi n of ribs and grooves may be left to individual choice, except that both grinders are of plane annular form with nonradial grooves below the surface. The grinders 22, 29 mav be allke, and

- Figs. 4 and 8 show a satisfactory design.

Each grinder is mounted by means of three bolts 60 to its supporting element and Fig. 6 shows how the tapering reduction passage 58 is formed, this passage of course differing slightly at different points on the grinder. Generally the inner periphery of the grinder is serrated, as by indentations 61, and immediately beyond these indentations are fiat surfaces 62 somewhat below the main plane surface 63 of the grinder, while beyond the flat portions 62 are nonradial grooves 64, the section of which is shown in Fig. 8 up to the points 65 in Fig. 4 and from then on is shown in Fig. 7, it being seen that the teeth formed by these grooves project in one direction and are somewhat rounded in Fig. 8, while the outer teeth in Fig. 7 project in the other direction and are flat on top, while the fastening bolts 60 are roughened or grooved in a similar manner. It results from this that the course of the material in the grooves is in short zig-zags between the grinders and all of the material eventually has to pass between the screw ta ers outwardly at the grinder end into 3. within the movable grinder annulus 29, the latter being bolted to the flange 28 of the feed screw. Beyond the flange 28 is the bearing portion 30 revolving in the cylindrical extension 31 of casing 26. The bearing is closely fitted to prevent escape of oil from the nuts, or may be specially packed, as the heavy pressure will force theoil into every crevice, unless prevented, and peanut oil is of little or no lubricating value. Beyond the, end of the bearing portion '30 is a ball thrust bearing 32 and a thrust block 33 controlled by a screw 34 threaded in the outer end of the coverand operated by hand Wheels 35, this screw and thrust mechanism operating through the feed screw against the spring 12'.

Just within the inner periphery of grinder 22'the casing is flared as shown in Fig. 1, while as shown in the same figure, the grinders are recessed on their'inner portions to form a tapering reduction passage 58 leading to the relatively narrow outer flat grinding faces proper. From this construe tion, it results that there is no release-of pressure on the nuts after the passages are once filled, and the passage area progressively reduces (by reason of the flared casing, the conical portion on the feed screw,

and the space 58), so that the pressure increases to a maximum at the peripheral grinding portions of the annular grinders, at least partial crushing having previously taken place. Owing to the relatively narrow flat grinding faces at the periphery of the grinders, friction, with objectionable heating of the nut aste, does not become excessive in maintainlng the pressure through and beyond the grinders. Also, there are no unobstructed radial passages in the flat grinding portions through which unground material can flow, as it certainly would do if not prevented, owing to the heavy pressure employed. With this mill,new grinders show after a short time, a slight reduction in efiiciency, but thereafter work for prolonged periods with very little change, while conical grinders constantly lose efficiency.

The flange 21 carries lugs' 24 through which pass clamp hooks 25 which engage with the pressure resisting close fitting casing 26, the rear ends of the screws being threaded and carrying wing nuts' 27 for holding the casing tightly against flange 21, a gasket preferably being used between the cover and the flange to maintain a tight s ightly conical portion which fits 'joint against oil which might be forced out,

owin to the heavy pressure at this point. By t is means, the casing readily centers itself, and can be set so that the spout 56 discharges at any desired angle.

The clutch collar 6 is connected by links 36 to an operating handle 37 pivoted at 38 on the feed screw casing 15 for purposes of convenience, as the operating handle 37 could equally well be pivoted on the frame 1. The bolts 14 constitute studs threaded into the flange 13 and carry the detachable feed casing, etc., as before described on one end, while on the other end, these same studs carry casting 39 having sockets to receive rods 40 secured by set screws41. The rods 40 carry the nut hopper 42 and seasoning hopper 43, the former having a bottom shaking mechanism 51 shaken from pulley 44 through belt 45 to pulley 46 on shaft 47 having eccentric 48 throughforked lever 49 pivoted at 55 on one of the rods 40 and shaking the bottom through link 50, thereby discharging the nuts into chute 18. 52 is the adjustable gate by which the feed to 51 is controlled, this gate having a depending end 53 which abuts against the sides of the hopper bottom when in lowest position, and set by wing nut 54.

The nuts to be ground are fed to screw 11 and are immediately taken by that screw and positively forced under pressure along the casing, any tendency to jam or become solidly packed being resisted by the longitudinal grooves 19. The nuts are positively forced under, between and from the disk grinders into the chamber surrounding the disks. Air is forced out by the pressure and after the first of the paste comes out of spout 56, the remainder comes out forcibly in a continuous solid and homogeneous stream with no voids or air bubbles. It will be seen that pressure is constantly on the nuts from the time'they first pass into the feed screw casing until the paste issues at the spout 56.

As the paste issues from s out 56 it is received in a container 57 whic is held at the mouth of the spout and may be filled comletely with paste, without voids or air ubbles because the manner in which the paste issues from the nozzle 56 allows it to flow upwardly from the bottom of the container 57, thus preventing voids and air bubbles.

It should be particularly noted that I employ annular disk grinders and not conical grinders, as I have discovered that they are not equivalents, because the combination of the described force feed with disk grinders having non-radial grooves enables me to obtain a higher output of homogeneous paste for a longer time without sharpening, and to maintain a pressure on the paste issuing from the nozzle, without overheating and not necessitating artificial cooling. The difierence is so marked compared with prior machines, that it evidently results from some attribute which has not heretofore been discovered, namely, that the pressure wears out conical grinders and the thrust, with excessive heating, and merely absorbsa large amount of power, with actual reduction of out ut.

he facility afforded in this machine for cleaning is-quite apparent. The quickly removable casmg permits endwise withdrawal of the feed screw carrying the movable grinder without releasing any other connections, owing to the interlocking slip joint between the shaft 2 and .the feed screw. When the cover is put back and the clamp 27 tightened the thrust adjustment has not been changed and the machine can go on runnin as before, without being readjusted. If it is desired to clean or inspect feed casing 15 it is only necessary to remove the .bolts 14 and the feed casing is in hand read for any kind of cleaning desired and al without disturbing any other essential parts of the mill. The thrust adjustment is not changed,'nor is. the hopper or seasoning de vice dismounted. Moreover, I have found it cheaper to make the longitudinal grooved casing a renewable unit as here shown than as a renewable bushing requiring considerable machine work and considerable dismounting to replace and set.

What I claim is:

1. A mill for grinding peanuts and the like into smooth paste comprising a frame carrying a hopper for nuts, a feed screw casing having internal longitudinal grooves with an opening to receive the nuts to be ground, a slow pitch feed screw in said casing cotiperating with said longitudinal grooves to feed the nuts forward under pressure, an annular fiat grinder carried at the end of the feed screw, a stationary annular disk grinder coiiperating therewith, means for resisting the thrust of the grinders, the end of the feed casing, the feed screw and the grinders being formed to provide a progressively narrowing passage to the fiat faces of the grinders to maintain the nuts under increasing pressure between the feed screw and the periphery of the grinders, and the fiat faces of the grinders having non-radial grooves therein, whereby pressure is maintained on the nuts by the feed to and through the grinders without overheating and without excessive thrust.

2. A mill for grinding peanuts and the like into smooth paste comprising a frame carrying a hopper for nuts, a feed screw casing having internal longitudinal grooves with an opening to receive the nuts to be ground, a slow pitch feed screw in said casing cooperating with said longitudinal grooves to feed the nuts forward under pressure, an annular flat grinder carried at the end of the feed screw, a stationary annular disk grinder cooperating therewith, means for resisting the thrust of the grinders, the end of the feed casing,.the feed screw and the grinders being formed to provide a progressively narrowing passage to the flat faces of the grinders to malntain the nuts under increasing pressure between the feed screw and the periphery of the grinders, and the flat faces of the grinders having nonradial grooves therein, and a pressure resisting casing inclosing the grinders and having a discharge spout, whereby pressure is maintained on the nuts by the feed to and through the grinders and within the casing to the spout without overheating and without excessive thrust.

3. A renewable feed screw casing for a peanut mill comprising a hollow body having longitudinal internal grooves carrying a flange at each end, one flange being attachable to the frame of the mill and the other being adapted to carry an annular grinder and a fitted cover, and the body having an opening for supplying nuts adjacent the former flange.

4. A mill comprising a frame carryinga driving shaft and a feed hopper, a feed screw casing comprising a tubular longitudinally grooved body attachable at one end to the frame and having a flange at the other end, a feed screw in said casing separa-bly interlocking with said shaft, a movable annular grinder mounted on the feed screw beyond the feed screw casing flange, a cooperating annular grinder mounted on said flange, a pressure resisting cover having a discharge spout separably secured to said feed screw casing flange and also having an end bearing for the feed screw, and an adjustable thrust bearing member carried by the casing and cooperating with the bearing end of the feed screw.

cured at one end to said base in line with said shaft and carrying a grinder at the other end, a hopper discharging through said casing, and a feed screw in said casing supported at both ends by said casingand separably interlocking with said drlve'shaft at its inner end and carrying a grinder at its outer end cooperating with said first grinder.

6. In a mill having a rotatable and a stationary grinder and a feed screw connected to the rotatable grinder feeding through the center of the stationary grinder, an interiorly grooved casing for the feed screw supporting the feed screw at both ends constituting a renewable unit separably attached to the frame of the machine at one end and carrying the stationary grinder at the other end.

7. A nut mill comprising a base carrying having interior feed grooves and connection with 'a hopper, a fixed grinder at the end of the feed casing, a feed screw within the casing supported at both ends by the casing and having separable interlocking connection with the driving shaft, a movable grinder carried by the end of the feed screw cooperating with the stationary grinder, and means for holding the feed screw in driving connection with the shaft and the movable grinder in cooperative grinding relation to the fixed grinder.

9. A nut mill comprising a base carrying a driving shaft, a feed casing on the base having interior feed grooves and connection with a hopper, a fixed grinder at the end of the feed casing, a feed screw within the casing supported at both ends by thecasing and having separable interlocking connection with the driving shaft, a movable grinder carried by the endof the feed screw cooperating with the stationary grinder, and means for regulating the space between said grinders comprising a spring for forcing the feed screw axially relatively to the drive shaft at the driving connection and an adjustable abutment for controlling such movement.

10. A nut mill comprising a base carrying a driving shaft, a feed casing on the base having interior feed grooves and connection with a hopper, a fixed grinder at the end of the feed casing, a feed screw within the casing supported at both ends by the casing and having separable interlocking connection with the driving shaft, a movable grinder carried by the end of the feed screw cooperating with the stationary grinder, and means for regulating the space between said grinders comprising a spring between the inner end of the feed screw-and the end of the drive shaft tending to separate screw and shaft, and an adjustable thrust bearing carried by the casing beyond the movable grinder for moving the feed screw and grinder against said spring to adjust the grinding space without disconnecting the feed screw and shaft.

11. A mill for grinding peanuts and the like into smooth aste comprising a pair of grinding disks iiaving opposed grinding faces provided with discontinuous nonradial grooves, means for rotating one of said disks, means for feeding the peanuts under pressurebetween said disks, a pressure resisting casing around said disks, and a discharge spout to discharge the ground paste 113M181 pressure free from voids and air bub- 12. A mill for grinding peanuts and the like into smooth paste comprising a frame carrying driving means, a tubular feed screw casing detachably connected at one end thereto, having internal feed grooves and an opening through the side to receive nuts, a 'fixed grinder carried by the other end of said tubular casing, a feed screw in said cas ing and having separable driving connection with said driving means, a movable grinder carried by said feed screw, a delivery casing carried by the feed screw casing inclosing said grinders and having a spout for delivering the ground paste under pressure, and thrust and supporting bearings for the other end of the feed screw in said latter casing.

18. A fiat disk mill for grinding'peanuts and the like into. a smooth paste and delivering same under pressure from a spout for directly and solidly packing into containers, comprising a longitudinally grooved tubular feed'screw casing receiving the nuts to be ground, a feed screw for feeding them there through ,under pressure, flat grinding disks,

one being movable, for receiving the nuts under pressure and maintaining the pressure while the nuts are being ground, a pressure resisting casing surrounding the grind.- ers to receive the ground paste and hold it detachable interlocking drivin with said driving mechanism, a xed grinder under pressure, and a discharge spout on said casing for discharging the paste under pressure directly into a container.

14. A fiat disk mill for grinding nuts into smooth paste and packing it directly into containers under pressure and without voids, comprising a hopper for the nuts, a feed screw casing receiving nuts from the hopper, a feed screw, in the casing for feeding the nuts under pressure, a fixed disk grinder and a movable disk grinder constructed and arranged to receive and grind the nuts to smooth paste and discharge the paste under pressure, and a casing having a discharge spout adapted to be inserted in the container to be filled, said casing holding and discharging the paste under pressure whereby it may be filled into the container free of voids.

15. In a mill for grinding nuts to paste and seasoning same, a main frame carrying driving mechanism and hoppers for nuts and seasoning material, means for controlling the feed of seasoning material, and grinding mechanism detachably connected to the frame comprising a tubular feed screw casing having an opening receiving the discharge of nuts and seasoning material to be ground, a feed screw in said casing having connection carried by said feed screw casing, and a cooperating movable grinder carried by the feed screw.

.Signed at New York city, in the county of New York and State of New York, this 2 day of Sept, A. D. 1920.

RICHARD A. GREENE. 

